For last month's Toy Fair event staged in New York City, Gentle Giant unveiled several new projects they currently have underway, a favorite of which is the new Star Wars Animated line of maquettes. Taking their cues from the Clone Wars animated series, Gentle Giant artisans have translated a handful of original trilogy characters not seen in the CW cartoon -- Princess Leia and Artoo, Boba Fett, and Darth Vader -- into figural sculptures emulating the signature Tartakovsky style seen in the groundbreaking series. In addition, Gentle Giant has announced that they plan to continue the popular Clone Wars maquette line as well, with the soon-to-be-offered Roron Corobb the latest addition to this celebrated series.
Gentle Giant is excited to be creating a new series which essentially is a sister to the well-received Clone Wars line, a series defined by stylized interpretations of many of the prequel characters. "Everyone here at Gentle Giant really loved the Clone Wars series and it seemed like a natural fit to try out the classic Star Wars characters in the style that Genndy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network crew created," says Gentle Giant Marketing Coordinator Amanda Burns. As for the original CW line, those will happily be continuing as well. "We still plan on continuing the Clone Wars animated maquettes," adds Burns. "There are many other characters from the cartoon we are excited about doing."
To develop the new series, Gentle Giant consulted several sources, including designs used previously to render the original trilogy characters two-dimensionally. "We all studied reference from the Droids cartoon, the Holiday Special, and the original films in order to determine what these characters would look like in this particular animated world," continues Burns. "We worked hand-in-hand with the great team at Lucasfilm Licensing at every stage, from looking at archive art, getting a feel for the classic characters and how they might look in the animated style -- all the way down to what types of colors to use."
What may soon become a fan-favorite, the Princess Leia and R2-D2 maquette comes closest to aesthetically bridging the gap between the CW and SW Animated lines. "The look for the Princess Leia was partly inspired from artwork we had found searching through the Licensing art archive and some cartoonish designs in the Star Wars style guide," says Burns. "The final pose and design of Princess Leia was meant to complement the Padmé maquette."
For fans of the original Clone Wars maquette series, this is welcome news, since many will want to display both series alongside each other or mix them up outright. For the Clone Wars series, Gentle Giant will soon be releasing Jedi Knight Roron Corobb (a name inspired by A New Hope creature designer Ron Cobb). "Roron was one of three Jedi that were created for the 'Choose Your Jedi' fan contest that Cartoon Network did," explains Burns. "The Jedi that won the contest was to be featured in Chapter 20 -- Voolvif Monn was the winner, but the other two Jedi that were created, Roron and Foul Moudama, were added to the future chapters 21-25."
With an added cast of characters to choose from now at their disposal, will Gentle Giant choose to expand the line with characters never before animated in any form, like Lando, Bossk, or A New Hope's Obi-Wan? "There is always that possibility," suggests Burns. "Each of the characters in the Star Wars universe will lend their own unique look in the animated style. But it also depends on how that look will translate into 3D form."
As for C-3PO, who inhabits both universes and remains strangely absent from the line, Burns can only tantalize. "You never know where C-3PO will pop up."
